Take Your Love and Start Again
by pacificbluegirl
Summary: Post-ep to Surrender Benson set a few days after Olivia is back at work after her abduction and she is struggling with the pain, memories and nightmares more than she wants to admit E/O


**Title:** Take Your Love and Start Again

**Author:** pacificbluegirl

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the SVU characters

**Summary:** Post Surrender Benson fic. Set a few days after Olivia is back at work after her abduction. "I am your wife. You're my _life partner_ Elliot, but she is your partner for life. She needs you now." E/O

**Authors note:** Just like the post-Somalia fics in the NCIS fandom the scenarios following Olivia's abduction and the time after Surrender Benson will be done over and over again, I'm sure. And it should be. This is my take on it, and I'm excited to read others.

The title has been borrowed from the Matt Cardle song _Run For Your Life_.

* * *

"Fine but next time, brunch is on me," Olivia replaces her MasterCard in her wallet as Brian waves his hand at her in protest.

"You know I won't allow that," he half smiles at her and pulls crumbled notes out of his pocket. He puts them down on the table and grabs Liv's smoked salmon bagel.

"You done with this?" He asks as he's taking a bite and she chuckles at him, shrugging.

"Sure." She sips her grapefruit smoothie before setting it aside and glancing at her phone. It was a bad habit and she knew it. She didn't need to constantly be checking it. Cassidy brushes crumbs from his jeans as he stands and he's almost out the door already when he calls back to her that they should get going. She scoots out of the booth and follows him out into the crisp morning air. The sky is clear and cool, but the sun is brave and strong and she can't help but smile. The sun is warming her face and if she closes her eyes she could be somewhere else, far away. She glances across the road, to the park and the leaves have just started to turn yellow but the grass is still green and she hooks her arm into his.

"Can we walk home please?" she asks, and she can feel herself beaming. She feels almost light in a way she hasn't for a long time. She doesn't expect her boyfriend to celebrate the idea out loud but she isn't prepared for the outright 'no' either. It is a beautiful day!

"Let's just hail a cab." Brian says flatly, and her arm drops from his as he steps out into the street to wave one over.

"Come on Brian! Why not? Who knows when the weather will be this good again. I haven't been for a proper walk in forever. It'll be nice." She smiles, looks up at him through long eyelashes and he sighs, his voice sharp with impatience.

"Look, I don't have all day Liv, it is nearly noon. It is faster to just cab it back."

Her smile falters and she clears her throat, standing back a little bit.

"We are off today..."

"No _you're_ off today Liv. I had the morning off, and the morning is coming to an end. I have to head back." As if to make himself perfectly clear he fishes his badge out of his pocket and pulls it over his head. The chain glows in the sunshine.

She looks so disappointed and confused then, just for a second, before a stoic mask of pride slips into place. In the cracks he can see that she is annoyed and she doesn't do a great job of hiding it.

"Why on earth did you tell me to take the day off so that we- Brian, what am I meant to do all afternoon?" She doesn't like her own voice, hates the words spilling out of her because they're all wrong. She doesn't mean that she can't spend an afternoon on her own, of course not. She has spent the majority of her life on her own, it's just that she has to be so careful now. Can't allow herself to be idle. Can't stand silence. Where there is silence there are ghosts, memories and pain. She is _fine_, but only when she is busy.

Brian cocks his head slightly, throws his hands in the air, frustrated.

"You needed the time off. I told you to take the day off because it will be good for you. Look, I'm working this case right now and if I could-"

The _don't leave me_ is stuck in her throat and instead she hears herself cut him short with a firm "fine, fine. Go!"

He looks at her, then checks the time and he gets his taxi tells her he will call her later, maybe they'll have time for dinner, or breakfast and he calls her sweetheart.

The sound rings in her ears long after the cab has pulled away.

The park is still there though and she peers at it from her spot across the street. A light fall breeze is pulling at the trees making the leaves crinkle and rustle gently in the wind. She takes a deep breath and considers just going home but her feet carry her across the street anyway. Joggers go past her, and ahead of her on the path a Dalmatian is trotting along its owner, a young man on a skateboard. There is an old man on the bench, reading the paper and he smiles at her when she walks past. She smiles back and tries her very best to only think about right now, about the sun, the light wind and the fact that she doesn't have to chase down any bad guys today and how that should be a good thing. She pulls her jacket closer and tries so hard not to at all think about how the man that walks past her just then looks like Lewis. Has the same build and eyes, and she looks away. She walks on, swallowing hard, won't allow herself to turn around.

There is a small pond, and someone throws a tennis ball across it and two dogs race across the pool of water, splashing it everywhere. She studies them and focuses on them. On dogs. On joggers, on mothers and fathers with prams and toddlers on their shoulders. She concentrates on the light and the air. She isn't in a car, she isn't tied to a chair, she isn't cuffed to a bed, her face held hard against a filthy mattress. Her breathing is labored then, and she shakes her head in frustration pressing a hand to her rib cage where she is sure bone is grinding against bone. _Stop it. _But there is bile rising in her throat and healing cuts and burns are stinging with the vivid memories.

She concentrates on breathing, on the ground underneath her and she ventures away from the path, slowly, slowly. Her lungs are straining just a little bit and she reminds herself that is is mostly in her head. Weeks have gone by and it's nerve endings firing away sensory reminders. Like muscle memory she had been told. Recalling the trauma in her mind could make her experience physical reminders too but she shouldn't worry. She was healing fine.

Some days she just wouldn't feel like it.

And those were the days she should surround herself with her family, the young doctor had said, with a smile. Those were the days she was meant to swallow her pride and fall back on her support network. Let herself go and let "her loved ones" help her back up again. She had looked at him blankly, couldn't find the strength to protest and he moved on to prescriptions and how lucky she was.

If 'lucky' meant that at least she's not in the morgue, then yeah, Olivia thinks. She's lucky alright.

She presses her fingers against the cold badge in her pocket, and she feels herself getting annoyed with Brian again. Work was the only place she truly belonged and though the others didn't agree, she could tell, it was the best place for her to be. With her mind occupied by dirtbags she could put away for someone else there was so much less time to think about her own. The one that had overpowered her. The one that had stripped her of absolutely everything that she had built up for herself. Just like that.

She finds herself at a playground. She walks up to the fence surrounding it and feels herself jump as she absentmindedly rested her wrists on top of the cool metal. A shiver runs down her spine at the feeling of cold metal against her skin and she pulls herself from it like it was boiling water. She hisses under her breath and wills that memory away too.

There is laughter and squeals of happiness all around her and she just stands there. She vaguely recalls a promise made... she might have been five or six and she had pressed her palms, her forehead and the tip of her nose against the cold window. There was a swing set outside, just across the road and she heard the question bubble out of her, like she couldn't stop it. _Mommy, please._ She had been hopeful and Serena's hands had been trembling as she tiredly pulled Olivia from the window. But then she said 'tomorrow' and Olivia went to bed all on her own, no one ever asked her to, no one tucked her in, she just pulled a blanket over her on the lumpy couch and willed herself to sleep thinking about that swing set.

_Tomorrow._

But then darkness fell and demons of the night stole her mother. The devil came, poured her full of drink, hate and fear and it was still dark when a bottle came flying through the air, crashed against the wall over Olivia's head and she knew her mother would be too busy now to take her out. Her mother was fighting an invisible monster that she sometimes said lived in Liv's eyes.

She didn't understand then. She doesn't understand now, as she's looking at the children before her. They're playing, laughing and chasing each other round, round up and down. How could anyone hide evil in something so innocent.

She's pulled from one memory into shock, awe and curiosity when a young boy runs over to her. Her breath catches in her throat at the big smile on his face and she feels dizzy. She takes him in. She knows him.

"You've grown so big," she breathes weakly to herself and the boy stops in his tracks. Just stands there model airplane in hand. He looks hesitant then. The smile is gone and he looks pensive. Then he takes another step towards her and she thinks she might cry but doesn't want to, doesn't want to scare him.

"Catch!" he holds he plane up, and she scans the playground, almost panicking. "Catch Olivia!"

And his little arm hurls the plane towards her, it sails through the air in what she is sure is slow motion and she crouches down, catches it in both her hands, looks at the object in her hands and blinks, breathes, swallows hard. She looks up slowly and giggles erupt through his throat. He is jumping, bouncing towards her now, slowly closes the gap between them and she smiles softly as she hands the plane back to him.

"Eli," she starts and he laughs again, as if his name coming from her mouth is the funniest thing he has ever heard.

"Sorry," Kathy whispers as she comes up next to them. "He's a little over excited, he knows you from pictures and-"

"It's okay. I- what-" and Olivia can't finish her sentence, can't quite grasp what is happening.

"He's so big," she mumbles in the end and Kathy smiles. Olivia looks over Kathy's shoulder, nervously and Kathy notices.

"He's not here," she states simply and Olivia nods.

"What- what are you doing here?" she asks instead and Kathy points over at a building in the distance.

"Lizzie has a job interview and so I thought Eli and I would come along for moral support and an ice cream. We are just waiting for her to come out now." She looks Olivia up and down as she speaks, but her careful smile is intact. Olivia tries to smile back but isn't sure she is very convincing.

Part of her is so relieved that Elliot isn't with them that she wants to cry. Another part of her feels herself ache, almost break at the thought that it could have been him there, with Eli, and she would have been able to see him - she would be happy with that, wouldn't even need to speak to him, she just wants to see him.

She feels her heart swell with pride though, and she hopes Kathy can see it in her eyes.

"That is fantastic!"

"Yeah," Kathy smiles. "They're so grown up now."

Olivia doesn't even know she is doing it, but she's rubbing her wrists now, staring at the boy charging up and down the slide like a little Duracell bunny his eyes the very same as Elliot's as he looks back at her, waving before he shoves himself back down the slide and starts all over again.

Kathy looks at the bruising on Olivia's wrists, careful not to let Olivia catch her. Behind them someone accidentally pops a balloon and Kathy pretends she doesn't notice the way Olivia's breathing hitches in her throat at the loud, unexpected noise.

"I- I should... go. Will you tell El," and her voice is low and she doesn't want Kathy to tell Elliot anything at all then. She swallows away the thickness in her throat and backs away from Kathy, blinks and wills her heart to slow. "Tell El I hope- I hope he's happy."

Kathy looks at her. She nods, slowly and frowns at Olivia, concern flooding her face and Olivia seems to sense it, can almost read her mind and shakes her head, no. She watches the Detective tear her eyes from hers, watches her pull herself into a sprint and she disappears between the trees before Kathy can see her tears.

But she doesn't need to see them.

* * *

His stomach drops as he walks in. He puts the bags of groceries on the counter and looks around the room in confusion. There are piles of clothes on the kitchen table, folded neatly, and next to them a half packed suitcase.

"Kathy?" He calls up the stairs, "Kathy! What's going on?"

His wife comes down the stairs with Eli's Batman backpack and their toothbrushes. She brushes past him and adds the items to her piles on the kitchen table.

"What's wrong?" Elliot demands, pulling things from the suitcase. "Where are you going?!"

He's witnesses her do this before. He's seen her pack bags in the morning, in the middle of the night. He's seen her cry over them, he's seen her heart break in her chest but there is something else now, something different altogether that's clouding her eyes.

"Eli and I are going to go stay with my friend Kate in Florida for a few days," she says and she doesn't sound angry. Elliot doesn't understand. He frowns at her, drops the t-shirt he had picked up back down into the open suitcase.

"What did I do?" he asks, and she chuckles at his broken tone. He looks miserable and she walks up to him touching his cheek.

"Nothing, you did nothing honey. Eli and I are just going to Florida for a bit. I'll take him to Disney."

"I can come?" Elliot suggests, honestly confused still. Kathy shakes her head and he still isn't convinced this isn't punishment for something he's done to upset her. The second she says it though he drops down on one of the kitchen chairs, his legs too weak to carry him all of a sudden.

"You're going to go see Olivia." Just like that. Like she means business and he has no say in the matter. He pulls in a shaky breath, and his field of vision narrows. There is a fog of pain that lowers itself over his mind and he takes another breath, tries to find his own voice under the pain that grows in his throat.

"Liv- I... what?" He stares at his wife, is now sure that she's angry, hurt and sure he's messed up. "I haven't- Kathy I love you. I haven't spoken to Liv in two years, I chose-"

"I don't care about what you chose and didn't choose. This isn't about you and me. Go see her Elliot. You have to."

Part of him is now processing exactly what it is she is saying, his mind burning through possibilities and double meanings. His palms are sweating and he can feel the adrenaline course through his veins. He is clinging to his chair, forces himself to stay put. His body wants to run out the door and not stop until he has her with him but his mind puts up walls. His mind holds him back, down.

"She probably doesn't want to see me," he says weakly as Kathy zips the suitcase up and calls Eli down from upstairs.

"It doesn't matter," his wife tells him, her eyes locking with his. "Elliot. She _needs_ to see you."

"I left her behind. I owed you, the kids... and I can't just-"

"Yes, and there was a time when I needed you. We needed you, and I love you, you are my husband, I am your wife. You're my _life partner_ Elliot, but she is your partner for life. She needs you now."

"Where is all of this coming from?" and he is starting to sound frantic now, and she wishes she could reassure him. Calm him down. "Did she call the house?" he asks and she shakes her head.

"No, no. Eli recognised her in the park. We saw her El." Her voice is so soft and her eyes so clear and he pulls himself from the chair, forces his legs to start working again.

"What's wrong?" He demands, his voice breaking and they can hear Eli bounce down the stairs with light thumps.

"I... El, just see her."

"Did she say something?" he hisses, wanting to keep his voice down and she shales her head again.

"I'm a woman too Elliot. I'm a woman that loves you, that used to hurt and I needed you to pick me up, put me back together again. I just knew when I saw her. Something happened. Whatever it is she needs you to fix her."

His mouth is dry, he can't stop the sound of anguish that escapes him and Eli stands, eyes big and worried in the doorway.

"Dad?"

"H-hey buddy... I heard you and mom are going on a trip!"

Eli smiles at him, nodding.

"You take care of her now big guy," and Elliot ruffles his hair. "You look after each other."

He pulls his coat on, palms his car keys, kisses Kathy goodbye and steps back into the clear evening. With every step he takes he feels the nausea grow inside him. What is he doing? He walked away so long ago. He ignored her calls, threw away the right to speak to her. He locked her away in his subconscious and only cried over her in his sleep.

Kathy might be right, she might need to see him but what if she doesn't want to? He wouldn't blame her. He hates himself with every cell in his body when he thinks about how he left her to every pervert, every gun man, every sleazy date, every psycho he used to keep away from her. He stopped circling her, stopped picking up his phone, stopped driving her home to make sure she stayed safe.

The entire drive to hers he thinks his plan of action is to stay in his car, outside, just for a bit. A couple of hours maybe. Just so that he can collect his thoughts and find the courage to face her. He knows it is there, deep within him because just the sound of her name makes him want to scream. It makes him want to charge through walls, kick down doors and run mile after mile, just to get to her. Just to see her.

By the time he pulls over the car though there is no stopping him. His body is on auto pilot and just the sight of her building, of the light in her windows immediately cancels any plans he had to think this over.

He has no time to waste. He has already wasted two years on compartmentalization and separating his feelings out in clear categories. What he is worthy of what he is not. Whom he is allowed to love and whom he is not.

He still has a spare key, lets himself into her building and climbs the stairs 3 steps at the time. He charges up, up, up and before he knows it he is standing there, forehead resting against the door of her apartment and he feels so guilty that he wants to die.

Who does he think he is, barging back into her life, demanding for her to trust her, let him in, let him help with deal with... everything that he doesn't have a clue about. He doesn't know a thing about her life anymore. He used to know her inside and out like he knew no one else in the world. Even after nearly 30 years with his wife he still can't sense her in a building or hear her in his head when he is about to do something irrational and stupid. He can't trust Kathy to just instinctually know where he is, what mood he is in, but Liv could. Liv knew more about him and his patterns than he did.

And here they are and he doesn't realise he is doing it before it is too late to stop himself. He cries her name out like he is the one that is wounded and the door flies open at the sound of his voice and for a moment she just stands there. His Olivia, pale and dressed in too many layers and her eyes are big, round and shiny, like she's been crying.

He is frozen in place at the sight of her. It is his Olivia but... he inches forward, and she just stares at him. He squints at the bright lights and every single light is switched on in her apartment. Every single one. It is so bright in there that he had made some cheeky crack about her living on the sun if it weren't for the bruises on her arms, faded but he still saw. He shivers, but sweats all at ones and he can feel himself getting clammy. Desperation is bubbling inside him, mixed with a stabbing pain in his heart. He swallows, hard and he realises that it's a 'oh god, I love you!' that he's just pushed back down. Not for his sake, but for hers. She looks so thin, almost like she's see-through and it feels unfair to pour words over her that are too late. She looks like she hasn't slept in days... maybe weeks and Elliot slowly reaches for her, watches on in amazement as she lets him hold her elbow, carefully, carefully.

"Hi."

And it is the most beautiful sound in the world to him. He smiles, wants her to continue but she just stands there. After a while he thinks he should probably stop staring, because she shifts, uncomfortably, and her cheeks flush as her eyes roam up and down his body. It is like she is assessing whether he is real or not, wondering when he will vanish into thin air. He just holds her arm.

"Hey you."

She smiles too then, and there is something in her eyes that is so familiar he wonders how he could ever lock her away in that mental box. How he could physically take the steps that lead away from her that day, over two years ago.

"You're not mad..." he muses but her eyes flash at him then and he nods at her in understanding.

"I was," she says, gingerly pulling herself away from her and walking over to her couch. He follows. "But not as much as I was hurt El."

He knew that. Of course he knew that. He sinks down on the couch, next to her and it was so warm in there. Why was it so warm?

"I know I'm so late. I know I don't deserve to even be here right now but..."

There is panic crawling under her skin, he frowns at her as she stiffens and he can read her still, thank fuck he can read her still, because he can see it. He can literally see the shiver run down her back, her arms and she thinks he is about to leave again. She thinks he will just explain himself and then leave her. Again.

He shakes his head desperately, his eyes begging with her.

"Liv, I hate what happened, how it happened, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm here now and I want to be. Please I want to be here, if that's okay with you?"

She pushes a section of her hair behind her ear and tucks her legs in under her where she is sitting. He could have sworn she is all of a sudden closer to him. She knows he didn't just wake up this morning deciding it was time. She knows he's only there because Kathy must have mentioned to him that she ran into them in the park today. She twists the idea around in her head, lets the feeling grow inside her to test if it matters.

She looks at the time on her DVD player and realises it is too late for Brian to come back. He hasn't called and he is probably still working, or catching some sleep at his place. It is still early in her world though, still so many hours to go, so all stretched out before her like a dark road to the end of a tunnel that only leads to more emptiness and nightmares.

Her partner, the man she had felt raging inside her, cheer her on, telling her to fucking kill the bastard was sitting right there. He was sitting there, breathing and alive, and not locked away in her head. She thought she would never get to see him again but here he is. There she is, alive enough to see him.

It doesn't matter why he is there. The important thing is that he is.

"You don't look well," he states matter of factly and she is so tired of doctors, therapists and nightmares that she just laughs, an exhausted, broken laugh and Elliot scoots closer. Slowly takes one of her hands into his. "You're beautiful Liv, but you look-"

"Like I don't sleep? Like I don't eat? Like I can still taste my own blood on my tongue? Yeah..." And she's whispering. It's not sharp, not angry, just secrets she's sharing with him and he leans closer, tries to not look as alarmed as he feels. Tries to not grab her by the shoulders and force out of her what she's talking about. He locks his eyes to hers, shifts in his seat so that he can fully face her, his broad chest right there, and her hands absentmindedly goes to his shirt, fingers stroking over his chest.

"Liv, what happened?" he looks around then, motions to the lights around them. "What's with the lights..." he brushes his thumb over her cheek. "You're burning up. It's too warm in here... no air."

"You would have killed him."

He stares at her. He feels rage boil inside him even though he doesn't know, still doesn't understand. All he does know is that if she says that it's true. He nods at her, and grabs her shoulders, carefully.

"I would have Liv. If you needed me to, I would have."

A small sob escapes her then, and her shoulders shake and her body convulses with the force of it her trying to hold it in.

"I needed you!" she cries and he believes her. He knows exactly how much it takes for her to ever admit she needs anyone, let alone him. She prides herself on being just as fast, just as strong and just as good. She likes taking care of herself. She likes being independent. She liked being his equal, a true partner.

All he can do is apologize. He doesn't know exactly what for but he knows he should, knows he could have kept her out of harms way.

"I'm so sorry Liv. I so, so sorry."

He brings her onto his lap, tugs at her gently and she just falls into place there, fits in a way that makes his heart break a little bit more. He looks down and can see healing scarring on her collarbones, her shoulders and he peeks down her back to what he can see of her back and shoulder blades. He feels sick and looks up at the ceiling momentarily. He tries to gather himself, pull himself together to not lash out. He isn't angry at her of course and in that moment he would rather die than to lose it and scare her in the process. The adrenaline is still tearing through him, his muscles are twitching, he wants to rip the world apart.

He eventually manages to get out of her that she was held for days. Held by a man with no boundaries and no inhibitions. She admits that she dreamt of him, of Elliot, when he drugged her and how she would sink into unconsciousness hoping she was dying.

He wants to throw up at the thought. He wants to find the man, wants to haul his ass out of his filthy prison cell and beat the his last breath out of him. If it would put all of his Olivia back together again, if it would erase all her memories and heal her bones and her skin he would have.

He is proud though, and when she tells him about how she ended it, how she willed her heart to beat as if it was his to gather strength she didn't have herself after days of starvation, beatings and sleeping pills and how she imagined him right there behind her when she turned the tables on Lewis he kisses her temple. He listens, clings to every word she manages to utter, strings the sentences together himself when needed, when she quite can't do it herself and he slowly, slowly pulls the extra layers of hoodies and sweats off her. There is nothing sensual or sexual about the way he undresses her, and he is careful to not touch her in any way to make her uncomfortable but she's over dressed. She is too warm and she is making herself sick this way.

He tells her how proud he is. He tells her how strong she was and how brave he always knew she was. He puts her back down on the couch, leaving her in her pajama bottoms and the oversized NYPD t-shirt she was wearing underneath all her protective layers. He can see how she all of a sudden feels too exposed and he asks her about it, feels like there is no point in holding back now.

"Are you this scared all the time?" He asks and the second he does he is worried she might think he is patronizing her. He goes to switch off one of the many burning lights and she follows him with her eyes, every step he takes, she follows.

"No. I'm okay in the day. I'm okay when I work, you know, when I'm busy... not alone. But I don't like it here when I'm on my own, in the evening or at night."

He appreciates her honesty, hopes that she figures she might as well now that they've been so honest already. He knows all her protective walls. He can walk that maze blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, always could but there was no time before. He hates how he spent years with such little energy to fight his way past the guards of her heart when he did know all the tricks. It was just that there was always a marriage falling apart as well, or a diaper change to get home to, or... life. It was just life.

He opens a window, just slightly and watches her carefully to check that she's okay with that. Air streams in and to his great relief she almost looks like herself again then, the Liv he left. The one that wasn't so rattled and hollow.

"You're back at work though..." Elliot says out loud.

"Yes. I'm perfectly capable of doing my job!"

"Okay, yeah, I didn't say you weren't." And he puts bread in her toaster and boils water for tea.

He eats with her, just toast with butter, but it's all she has and he makes a mental note to get her groceries tomorrow. They don't talk about whether is planning on staying or not, they both just know that he is.

It is getting late and he can see how she has to fight not to fall asleep over her mug of tea, right then and there. He gets how sleep will be hard right now, and doesn't at all think it is strange that she's still struggling even though it has been, in her own words, "so long since it happened".

Two years is _long_ for a friend to not call he thinks, guilt eating away at him again. Twelve is _long_ for partners to last. That's long. A few weeks passing since a brutal abduction, sexual assault and attack is not.

"Liv," he says as he lies down on her bed, calling her over. "Let's try it out. You need the rest."

She's standing in the doorway, feels silly and pathetic and he can tell.

"I'm not doing this because I don't think you're a big girl that can take care of herself, I'm doing this because I want to have a nap with you and I think you want some sleep too. I know you have tried on your own, and I love that about you - even when it frustrates me like hell because I'm an overprotective bear" and she laughs at him then, and the sound warms his insides. "But it didn't work too well, and one day it will, but tonight maybe this will work instead?" he continues.

"I don't..."

"Rely on people. Liv, I know. But I have two years of not being obnoxious to make up for here. I haven't scared off a boyfriend or date in two years! I haven't insisted on driving you home, on you flashing your lights so I know you're safe, I haven't slammed a perp up against the wall for staring at your ass in over two years."

She sighs, gives in and crawls in under the duvet. He has opened a window in her bedroom too and he spots her looking at it, wearily.

"Liv..."

"Hmmm" she drags her tired eyes from the window and looks at him.

"Livvy, do you trust me?"

"Of course."

"Do you trust me to not let anyone get to you?"

She sighs and nods, places a hand on his chest, right over his heart and gives it a light tap with her index finger.

"Yes. Yeah, I know."

"Good. Then relax, think about how I will be right there when you wake up. Dream about new boots, Vera Wang dresses and Ryan Gosling, or whatever it is you women dream about when you do that moaning in your sleep thing..."

He chuckles when she elbows him in the ribs.

"Ryan Gosling..." she mutters as she drifts off. Elliot glances over at her bedside table and reads the Get Well card propped up there, signed by Brian.

"Okay then," Elliot rolls over on his side, kissing the top of her head before he takes her hand safely into his. "Dream about all the ways I will chase Cassidy away, possibly with a baseball bat."

_You're worth more, you're worth more than this_

_You can tale a leap without the risk_

_There's no time, there's no time for this_

_Take your love and start again_

_You'll find more, you'll find more than this_

_Take the world that's at your fingertips_

_Don't waste time, don't waste time with this_

_Take your love and start again_

* * *

Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you thought.

I just can't imagine the universe keeping these two apart after what happened to her and though I am actually quite neutral when it comes to the Cassidy thing on the show he is no Elliot. That's for sure. ;) In a situation like this I honestly can't imagine anyone else than Elliot making a difference for her.


End file.
